


Random moments of interaction

by Sa_kun



Series: Path Not Taken [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Gen Fic, Guardian-Ward Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-30
Updated: 2011-05-29
Packaged: 2017-10-19 22:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/205845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sa_kun/pseuds/Sa_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four random moments of school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Harry was fourteen years old, Severus pulled him aside. It was the Christmas Holiday and, for once, they were at Spinner's End. He sat him down in the formerly dusty room, but that since Harry’s arrival had been clean and cosy.

“Harry,” he said, placing tentative hands on the boy's shoulders, “I never placed myself under the delusion that I wanted children.”

Harry nodded, understanding perfectly, but still happy that the man had enough patience to deal with him.

“You must understand that what I am about to mention is not in any way a method to rectify that, and that out relationship would not change other than possibly strengthen. I will still be your guardian and Professor, and you will still be my idiot child and student.”

Smiling shyly, Harry nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Also, you must never mention it.”

“Dark Magic?”

“Extremely.”

“Oh,” Harry breathed, then he nodded, green eyes lighting up with curiosity.

Severus’ eyes momentarily glinted with amusement. “Cheeky brat,” he muttered and Harry grinned. “Incorrigible.”

“Wouldn’t want me any other way, would you, sir?” Harry asked softly.

“There are times I wonder,” Severus said dryly. Then he cleared his throat, and all at once, Harry straightened.“The spell I am proposing would essentially bind us together; all my magical qualities adding themselves to yours, and you would become my magical heir. I trust you see the implication.”

“All your…” Harry trailed off. “Your mother…wow. Would I—”

“No,” Severus drawled, “but any children you might have.”

“Oh.” Harry nodded again, then smiled and simply said, “Okay, sir.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's play Quidditch.

Nervously gripping his broom, Harry waited for the Captain's permission to take off and show what he had to offer to the team.

“Potter,” Draco sneered, “what are _you_ doing here?”

“Professor Snape gave me an ultimatum. This was the lesser of two evils,” Harry said quietly, adjusting his gloves. Draco didn't need to know that the ultimatum hadn't really been an ultimatum as much as a threat that if Slytherin lost the Cup yet one more year in a row, McGonagall would never let Professor Snape live it down, and if Harry even _considered_ not offering what skills he had with a broom, then Severus would be a _very_ cross man and _Harry_ would not want to… _experience_ that.

“Potter!” the Captain yelled. “You’re up!” Harry saw him let go of something small, golden and fluttering. Harry hurriedly mounted his broom and took off. Unlike the previous three try-outs, it didn't take long before the Quaffles were released and took off after Harry, and then there were other players there, zooming around and getting in his way, hindering him and doing their utmost to knock him off his broom. Trust the House of Slytherins to make try-outs more physically demanding than an actual match of Quidditch. That he still managed to catch the Snitch within five minutes of its release, much faster than anyone else, merely proved to solidify Professor Snape's threat.

Tumbling off his broom, Harry lay, spread-eagled, on the lush grass, panting harshly and smiling. In his left hand, the Snitch was still struggling.

“Potter,” the Captain said slowly, eyes dark and Harry thought he looked quite dangerous. “What the hell have you been doing the past _four_ years?!”

“I—”

“You are a Slytherin, for Merlin's sake! How can you condone _not_ trying out earlier?”

“I…I didn't know I could fly until two years ago, and we didn't _have_ Quidditch last year.”

“ _Didn't know_!? Potter—”

Harry glared and sat up. “I'm Muggle _raised_ , you imbecile! First time I held a broom was First Year and Professor Snape doesn't exactly have time to take me flying on his spare time!”

The Captain glared and spat, “ _Fine_ , Potter. You're on the team. Miss a practice and you're dead, got it?”

Harry nodded and muttered, “Yeah,” then he flopped back down on the grass again. _Bloody hell…_

-x-

“Sir?”

Professor Snape raised a single eyebrow. Harry swallowed nervously and fidgeted with the broom in his hands.

“I…I made the team, sir.”

“I expected no less,” he said silkily and beckoned the boy closer with a crooked finger. “I believe a reward is expected,” Professor Snape murmured as Harry came closer. “You agree, I hope?”

Harry, on the verge of protesting that the man really didn't need to give him anything, bit his lip instead and nodded. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

“Come, then,” Severus said, almost gently. Then he grasped Harry's wrist and tugged him closer. A box was placed with care in Harry's hands. Harry frowned as he picked up a one-sided conversation coming from inside it. “Well done, lad.”

Harry coloured slightly. “Thank you, Severus. Um. The box is talking.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. Sarcastically, he said, “Surely not? I cannot detect anything.”

It was a major clue, Harry realised, especially once he opened the box and a lazy snake peeked out of it. “Ohhh,” Harry gasped. “Sir, you shouldn't have…he's so beautiful…thank you!” Harry impulsively hugged his guardian. “Thank you.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry interacts with his pet snake.

Harry sniggered quietly. He was sprawled on the fluffy carpet in front of Severus' fireplace (a very illogical decision, as it would undoubtedly have caught fire long ago were it not for the Fire Repelling charms cast on it). In front of him, head level with his nose, his snake was bobbing his head, forked tongue slipping out every once in awhile to taste the air.

 _“It's not true!”_

The snake huffed a laugh. _“But it is, warmling, but it is!”_

Harry shook his head. The snake hissed. _“Where are you king, then, little one?”_

 _“I am not little!”_

 _“Of course not,”_ Harry amended. _“Your Majesty.”_

 _“Ahhh…”_ the snake hissed in pleasure. _“That is more like it…”_

 _“Would His Majesty care to inform me, then, his humble servant, of where his kingdom is?”_ Harry's eyes were filled with mirth and his shoulders were shaking.

 _“My domain is far from here, in the fires of the sand! I was but a hatchling when I was captured and brought to the shop where your Master bought me.”_

Harry nodded. _“I am sorry to hear that.”_

 _“Do not be, warmling. It has been long since a Speaker last walked among your kind. For this, I would trade my kingdom without regret. As I have.”_

 _“But you didn't know that when you were captured—”_

 _“Ah, but everything, dear warmling, is…_ inevitable _. This would have come to pass even if I would have known beforehand that I was to be captured.”_

Bemused, Harry nodded. _“Okay.”_ Inevitable? As in…foretold? _“Do snakes tell the future from the stars, then? Like the Man-Horses?”_

 _“No. We simply…exist…”_

 _“Of course you do,”_ Harry muttered.

“Harry.”

Harry started and hurriedly looked up. Severus had an eyebrow raised. Next to him, a tall blond man was staring coolly down at him, face curiously blank and lips slightly curled. Although he wasn't sure why, he just knew it was Draco's father. Perhaps he recognised him from the Platform ¾, perhaps it was from the Daily Prophet, or it was from seeing Draco Malfoy everyday.“Sir?”

“Would you care to remove yourself and your companion from the floor? It is…unsightly.”

…unsightly? Too Muggle? Something that simply wasn't done in the household of Malfoy? Harry bit his lip and reached out towards his little snake. _“Hop on, my little king. My Master wants to be alone.”_

The forked tongue flickered out again, tasting the air. _“Ah…the pale one tastes of fear…”_

 _“Well—”_ Harry slowly stood, snake wrapped around his wrist _“_ — _my master once told me that a Dark Lord—”_

 _“Yes, yes…I have heard. They were both his Servants…”_

 _“I know…”_ Harry trailed off. He nodded at the men. “Excuse me, then.”

“I expect you to be in your room.”

“Yes, sir. Good day, Mr Malfoy.”

-x-

“Harry?” The door to Harry's room opened and Severus walked inside the seemingly empty room. “Harry—!”

“Here, Severus,” came Harry's voice, slightly muffled, from under the bed. “Bloody snake slithered off… Ah! Bastard bit me!”

Severus stilled. “The snake?”

“No. The rat.”

“Rat?”

“Well, mouse, really. His Highness was hungry…”

The door slammed shut as Severus barked, “ _What_?!”

Harry blinked – what was Severus up to now? – and sucked on his finger. He glared at the mouse. It squeaked defiantly at him. “Foul beast,” he muttered. “You're not real, you hear me? You're a bloody shirt button…” Harry turned away and looked up as the bed disappeared. “Sir?”

“Have you any idea what a mouse could do to a potions supply room?”

“…I wasn't going to let it out of here.”

 _“Mousey!”_

Harry pulled his hand away as his snake lunged from his shirtsleeve, at the mouse, and Harry hurriedly scrambled back.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry hangs out with Cedric Diggory.

Harry Potter got to know Cerdic Diggory the year after the TriWizard Tournament. It wasn't, like Cedric had mentioned at one point, an attempt to redeem himself or really connected with the Tournament the previous year at all (Harry had, after all, managed to get himself disqualified in the most dignified of ways while also simultaneously reminding everyone the he was fourteen bloody years old!). It was rather an honest attempt to satisfy a curiosity.

That, and Harry had managed to win Slytherin the last Quidditch game against Gryffindor, which meant that Hufflepuff was next. Know thy enemy and all that. Harry privately thought Hufflepuffs didn't reason like that, but Draco and some of the other, older, Slytherins had been rather…adamant about it. There was also the matter of Cedric having Graduated the year previously.

-x-

“Harry!”

“Hmmm?” Harry looked up from the book about Charms in his lap. Cedric smiled down at him, eyebrows raised.He looked flushed but happy. Harry held back a frown, wondering if he had already been to see Chang. “Hello, Cedric.”

“How are you, mate?”

“Fine. Aren't you here an awful lot for a former student?”

Cedric winked. “Don't have a girlfriend, do you, Harry?”

“No, I don't.”

“What about that girl?” Harry frowned and Cedric gesticulated with his hand, snapping his fingers. “The one you took to the Yule Ball, don't you like her?”

Harry blinked, then slowly said, “Him. It was a boy, and no, I don't like him.” Cedric blinked. “Louis. Beauxbaton student. Cute. Blonde, pert arse? Had a thing for Viktor?”

“Oh! Right, yes, yes! I remember him– you're _gay_?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Gay?”

“Is there anything wrong with that?”

Cedric looked away. Harry thought he might be a bit paler than usual, eyes just that bit wider. “I don't know why I'm surprised, really,” he finally said after a long while of silence.

Harry frowned. “What do you mean?”

“How many girls asked you to take them last year?”

“Three.”

“And you turned them down. In favour of a boy.”

“ _Do_ you have a problem with this?” Harry asked sharply and put down his book on the ledge he was sitting on so that he could stand up. He glared and crossed his arms. “Okay, yes, I'm gay. Yes, I went out, _once_ , with a bloke. Yes, I'm still Harry bloody Potter. Now, do you have–”

“I don't have a problem with it.”

Harry narrowed his eyes and didn't say anything.

“I mean…” Cedric shifted slightly and grimaced. Finally, he said, “It's just…I like girls, you know? I just…how could you _not_ like them?”

“How could you?”

Cedric rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Fine.” He cleared his throat. “So, I hear you made Seeker?”

“Yeah,” Harry murmured, a wry smile twisting his lips. Quidditch, yes. Good choice, Cedric. Safe subject, home ground? However, he didn't argue and went with it. “The captain was rather cross with me for not having tried out earlier.”

-x-

Harry Potter got to know Cedric Diggory in his Fifth Year, but they never became close or anything other than friendly acquaintances. The Diggory name was still prosperous and the Potter name had started to become less so since Harry entered Hogwarts.

No matter the reason, Cedric stopped asking why Harry was always single, and the nature of Harry's sexuality was neatly forgotten. Harry didn't mind, not really and certainly not terribly much, but the other boy grew…more careful. The friendly touches that Harry had never enjoyed or wanted disappeared and Cedric grew more careful. On the other hand, Cedric also became more open about his own relationship.

Harry wasn't sure if he appreciated it.

 


End file.
